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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

On Me And Mr.Johnson, Eric Clapton covers 14 of the 29 songs Robert Johnson, the most mythic figure of the blues, wrote and recorded in his lifetime. For fans of deep blues,it doesn 't get any better than this. After the success of Clapton 's first two traditional blues albums -+1994 's Gram- my-winning triple-platinum, #1 pop From The Cradle, and 2000 's Grammy-winning, double-platinum,#3-charting Riding With The King collaboration with B.B.King -+Me And Mr.Johnson finds Clapton once more at the crossroads of blues and rock.

Amazon.com

It's impossible to overemphasize the importance of singer-guitarist-songwriter Robert Johnson's contribution to blues music. The same can be said of Eric Clapton, one of Mr. Johnson's most dedicated interpreters. From his work with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers to Cream and beyond, Clapton has arguably attracted more widespread attention to Johnson's music than any other living musician. A decade after his all-blues From the Cradle (which included no Johnson material), Clapton jumps into the icon's catalog with both feet by covering 14 Johnson tunes. With a stripped-down veteran band that includes such longtime associates as drummer Steve Gadd, keyboardist Billy Preston, and harmonica ace Jerry Portnoy, the guitarist attacks these songs with passion, intelligence, and a refreshing lack of blues-rock pretense. From the upbeat jump of "32-20 Blues" and "They're Red Hot" to the slower, grinding "Little Queen of Spades" and "Milkcow's Calf Blues," Clapton acquits himself well, eschewing his slicker inclinations with arrangements that underscore Johnson's rawest tendencies--although perhaps he doesn't seem sufficiently terrified when walking with Lucifer on "Me and the Devil Blues." Still, this is a successful and admirable return to his roots, one that will hopefully introduce an even larger audience to Johnson's seminal work. --Hal Horowitz

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Eric Clapton has often stated that JJ Cale is one of the single most important figures in rock history, a sentiment echoed by many of his fellow musicians. Cale’s influence on Clapton was profound, and his influence on many more of today’s artists cannot be overstated. To honor JJ’s legacy, a year after his passing, Clapton gathered a group of like-minded friends and ... Read more in Amazon's Eric Clapton Store

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

When Clapton recorded and released his 'Unplugged' few years ago, he made wonderful covers of both Robert Johnson's Malted Milk and Walking Blues. The result was absolutely brilliant. I had not heard a more inspired, passionate,soulful Clapton in years.I would say that the opposite is true of 'Me and Mr. Johnson'. Leaving aside why Clapton decided to record the 14 songs he chose instead of Rambling on My Mind, I'm a steady Rollin'Man, and so on; the record has a major problem.There's no energy, there's no strength, there's no passion. If you listen to Robert Johnson's original recording they're phenomenlly powerful. In Clapton's rendition, those very same song almost put you to sleep.Love in Vain is a perfect case in point. It is a very powerful song, one of those songs that strikes some chords inside you. Robert Johnson created that magic, the Rolling Stones were able to preserve that magic in their cover, but all the magic is lost with Clapton. Love in Vain is almost boring. Clapton is a great guitar player and great bluesman, but the arrangements he chose for this record are terrible. They take all the energy away from these great great songs. What a disaster.

Eric Clapton has been introducing the "Blues" to new audiences for almost his entire life. Early in his career, he could take an obsure blues song like "Crossroads" and make it into a rock hit. A number of Robert Johnson's songs were recorded in the corner of a hotel room on ancient equipment. These harsh sounding, yet powerful performances can send chills up your spine. Sadly, "Me and Mr. Johnson" is just plain boring to listen to. The song arrangements stay mostly faithful to the original recordings, but there are too many instruments on them. The band contains some fine musicians, but they sound so polished and lifeless. Clapton's playing is competent as usual, but it lacks the enthusiam that used to set him apart from all his peers.

With all the hoolpa this cd has received, one is atonsihed by the absolute nonsense of some of the rock critics who rave about this. Much of this collection of performances of songs that Robert Johnson recorded is on the level of a bar band doing Robert Johnson. None of Clapton's renditions of these songs match those by Robert Lockwood, Johnny Shines, Honeyboy Edwards, Big Joe Williams, Junior Wells, Eddie Taylor, Boyd Gilmore, Muddy Waters and others who have taken Johnson's songs and produced recordings that are more passionately and personally performed. Clapton is too reverent to these songs and the lyrics which is strange for a homage to Johnson whose own work adapted and transformed his contemporaries music as Elijah Wald details in his recent book. Check out Leroy Carr's In the Evening before listening to Robert Johnson's Love in Vain and Clapton's rendition pales compared to the Stones' cover of it three decades ago. Both Junior Wells and Eddie Taylor had standout recordings of Stop Breakin' Down that makes Clapton's rendition here sound not very distinguished. Call Clapton a rock guitar god all you want and a great popularizer of the blues, but when you have assimilated not simply Johnson's music but also the great bluesmen of the past fifty years, than Clapton's achievement is clearly overstated. One other point was that I was not enamored by the studio band. There are some great players (and Mr. Portnoy is a great harp player), but the rhythm section does not swing and they sound second rate comapred to some of the classic Chicago bands of the sixties and seventies.

The power of Robert Johnson's music lies in his haunting lyrics, stark arrangements, and tortured delivery. Unfortunately, in reworking Johnson's songs for "Me and Mr Johnson", Eric Clapton has robbed them of their original power, substituting instead competent, but out-of-place, Chicago Blues-style arrangements and disappointingly hackneyed vocal delivery. Johnson's lyrics alone are left to carry the load and, alas, they cannot.

Clapton can do better, and, indeed, he has. Listen to "Malted Milk" from Unplugged and "Terraplane Blues" and "Ramblin' on My Mind" fromSessions For Robert J. (CD + DVD) for proof that he can interpret Johnson's music in inspired fashion. Given the magnitude of Robert Johnson's influence on Eric Clapton, a Clapton album comprised entirely of Johnson's songs seemed a very promising undertaking. If only "Me and Mr Johnson" had lived up to that promise . . .

Having been a fan of both Robert Johnson and Eric Clapton, I was impatient to unwrap the album and listen to it. What a disappointment... Compared to his other exclusively blues album, "From The Cradle", this is a frustratingly mediocre interpretation of great songs... I think the sound is way too refined for Robert Johnson songs, whose wailing voice and slide guitar were "deeply soulful", quoting Clapton himself.

I cannot pinpoint the exact reason for my dislike, but I believe the mojo is just not there. Maybe it's the crisp and flawless rhythm of Steve Gadd, maybe it's the studio-perfect bass sound of Nathan East, maybe it's Billy Preston's leaking organ, or it's just the too-clean, squeaking, perfectly reproduced Blackie replica sound that Clapton loves so much...

It might be a good album for some people who like to listen to music in the background, but for hardcore blues fans, I don't think it'll do. It would have been much better if Clapton had just taken his acoustic into the studio and had Jerry Portnoy or Chris Stainton with him on a few tracks... Well, the producer obviously had other things in mind...